Heymann Park is open for business

While everyone else was in Mobile getting smacked down, we stayed back in Lafayette (sorry we missed it Southside) and busied ourselves installing our city's fourth 18 hole course at Heymann Park over the weekend.

After holding a tournament there on a temporary course in September and receiving mostly positive feedback from the players, we started the process of getting it in permanently.

That process was completed today with the installation of 18 shiny new Discatcher Pro baskets.

In addition to the crew that labored this weekend digging holes, mixing and pouring concrete, driving sign posts and lugging baskets, the following people need to be thanked for their financial support of this project...

Mr. Greg Gautreaux - Director of Recreational Sports for Lafayette Consolidated Government's Parks and Recreation Department. Greg is the keystone of Disc Golf in Lafayette. Without his enthusiastic support of our beloved sport, none of what we have now would be possible and Heymann Park is just the latest in a long line of projects that he has gotten behind and made possible.

Machine Tools, Inc. - Jon Davis' employer provided us with an endowment to help with this project's cost. There are many planned amenities that will be paid for thanks to their generosity.

Everybody that has played Sunday Doubles with the ADGA since the beginning of this year - We voted to add $1 at each Sunday round starting in January to cover the costs of installing this course. Enough was raised to buy all the materials and rent the tools necessary to get the job done. As promised, now that the goal is reached, doubles goes back down to $7.

For the players who attended last year's Late Summer Fest, you will notice the following changes;

- The hole we played as #1 was removed due to being in very close proximity to the basketball courts. In the area where that basket was placed, a permanent basket will be installed as part of a putting green, complete with marked distance stations .

- The hole we played as #11 (now 10) has a window through & over the swap for straight shots thanks to the clearing of a bunch of undergrowth. The mando around the water is therefore unnecessary & has been removed

- We split the hole that we played as #13 into two holes (now #12 & #13)

- We pushed the basket for hole #15 as far back as possible without getting in to #11's fairway too much. We also pushed the tee box for #16 back. The result is that nearly all of the wooded area with all of the big, beautiful oak trees is in play.

Keep in mind;

- Permanent signs for the course are forthcoming. In the meantime, we made some really nice, simple, durable signs with just hole numbers - not distances on them that will eventually be repurposed as pro tee signs for Acadiana Park.

- Tee pads are all natural surface, marked with cement pills for now. Concrete tee boxes will be installed once we play the course for a while and make sure no major adjustments need to be made.

- Heymann is not a big park and we put the longest course in town there. As a result, we used basically every square inch of real estate. There are a few places where errant shots may impinge on other fairways. If this looks like it is going to be a problem once we get a crowd on the course, we can move basket or two.

- Because we used the entire park, there exists a real potential for pedestrian traffic on some of the holes. During tournament play, we will try to keep this to a minimum. During casual play, I ask that everyone excercise patience and discretion, be polite and introduce new people to our sport the right way. We weren't "given" Heymann Park to make a Disc Golf course out of, we have been allowed to install a course there and we are expected to share the park in a respectful manner.

Scott Comeaux took a bunch of pictures and video this afternoon during the first casual round. I will get him to send me some material to upload to the site for a preview.

Heymann joins Pelican Park on the Northshore as 36 holes of Disc Golf come on line along the I-10/I-12 corridor in south Louisiana.

After playing two rounds there today on this super, fantastic, awesome, unbelievable, beautifully gorgeous, Top class, championship caliber course, all I can tell anyone who has yet to play it is. Bring your A+++ game cause this course will test you, while making you say WOW. It truly is a picture-es beauty of a course with a little Cajun flare.

Oh yeah, one more thing. The course has a little watering hole right off to the left of 17's tee box, that opens around 11am. 7 days a week. Just encase you need a little refreshment during a fun filled day of golfing with your crew.

Today has been a very proud day for all those involved in making Acadiana Disc Golf be all that it can be with this new addition!

And last but not least.
Thank You Jacques, and the Acadiana Disc Golf Association!

2007-2008 SN Amateur Player of the Year
SN advanced single season points record holder - 466 (2007-2008)
SN advanced single season wins record holder - 16 (2007-2008)
SN advanced single season score record holder - 53.40 (2007-2008)

This is a view from the road, slightly behind hole 9's basket looking back down the fairway. The tee box is next to the pavillion which is barely visible in the background and that is the Vermillion River running along the fairway.

This is a view from behind hole 15's basket looking back down the fairway. The tee box is along the fence line in the background and the basket can be seen from the tees through a "window" created by those three big live oaks in the center of the picture.

My thoughts on Heymann so far;

It is not the most difficult course out there, but it is no easy win either and the OB will separate good play from bad in a tournament.

It is strikingly picturesque.

Live Oaks and Cypress trees that are hundreds of years old are all over the place and offer nice shade on a hot day.

Part of the front 9 play around a real south Louisiana swamp which looks like it was cut and pasted from the middle of the Atchafalaya.

The Vermillion River rolls along the fairway for two of the longer holes on the course on its way to the Gulf of Mexico.

Heymann Park is situated directly across from Vermillion Ville, a rural life museum of sorts where an original cajun village from the 1800s has been preserved. There is live music every weekend which can be heard from nearly half of the holes.

All in all, it is a great place to spend a few hours playing Disc Golf.

So after playing Heymann Park this afternoon after the rains this morning all I can say is, SWAMPY! Just to give everyone a heads up, there are a few holes that get a bit muddy. But it still is a awesome course!

Just played it earlier today and I love the park and love the holes. The water hazards are nice, which I like, and will be a real boom to the local disc selling community. I know I'm going to hate that last little finger of water right next to hole 2. Hole 9 is a work of art. So is 17. The whole place is beautiful.

The layout has a couple of problems on the back, though. I can understand why you made some of the decisions you did, but you can still avoid the houses and not have the criss-crossing of holes. 11, 12 and 13 are all potential problems, especially during tournaments. They infringe on each other's fairways a little too much.

Also, hole 1 and hole 18 play right at each other. I guess you wanted to leave room for the putting green and avoid the gazebo, but you might want to move the #1 tee to the right a bit ans shorten it if you have to. I don't want to get knocked unconscious when one of Nyce's gorilla drives gets away from him.

I kept shecked the board but didn't see a thread about a work day. Did I miss it? Let me know when you pour the concrete.

I agree, 12 & 13 are my least favorite holes in terms of course design. I actually like 11 but it may have to change slightly to make room for modifications to 12 & 13. The trees on 12 & 13 give a nice canopy but provide little physical separation of space at ground level so there is sort of an open field look to that area when you are playing a round.

I would tend to balk at changing 15 or 16 very much as they are part of a really good final four hole flourish to end the course.

Hole 1 & 18 do play towards one another and it is one of those scenarios where good shots won't cross fairways but bad shots potentially will. It may necessitate changing something or might be solved by patience on those holes.

Right now, I am hoping for a decent turnout at doubles this Sunday to see the course being played during a shotgun start round with a crowd and see how it goes.

The plan has always been to keep the real permanent elements for the course on hold (concrete boxes, signs that show the layout, etc) until we have an evaluation period to sort of "test drive" everything.

I didn't start a thread for the work day because we already had more people than we had tools and equipment for them to use that weekend. Shoot me a PM with your number and I'll get you in the loop for work days which usually get announced by text message.

QuoteThe plan has always been to keep the real permanent elements for the course on hold (concrete boxes, signs that show the layout, etc) until we have an evaluation period to sort of "test drive" everything.

That's a good plan. There are some drainage problems as well, and it's not clear how they'll play out. Maybe they'll let us dig something. Whose idea was the evil water hole? It's awesome. Even the "safe" shot forces you to perfectly split the uprights. I'm going to let some small bass go into the pond. I'm sure the city won't mind.

Also, some city/trustee crews were out there today and messed up a couple of the tee boxes. 5 is just a giant rut now.

IMO 15, 16, 17, and 18 are by far the best final four holes of any disc golf course in Louisiana. Go big or go home!

Hole 12 works well in it's position, but 13's basket is located a good bit to close to 12's basket. I think by simply moving 13's basket over to the left side of the big oak on the left and pushing it further back about 75' would workout nicely, it would also shorten the walking distance from 13's basket to 14's tee-box.

As far as holes 5, and 6 go, I don't much like those holes because the baseball field's fence comes to much into play like Ian said, but it is what we had to work with to fit all 18 into the park. That said, all in all it is a awesome course!

I like the course alot, Its definitely well used but not that cramped, if you have ever played Kee's park in pineville you literally throw across fairways and at tee's box's. i think a few mando's will probably solve most of the pedestrians being struck by flying discs, as well as force people to throw around the baseball field and not over it.

Does anyone know of any other plans to add new courses in Lafayette or surrounding areas? I know that the new recreation park in Broussard is supposed to have a course on it (according to the plans anyway), but it looks like it will be fairly short, and is probably a couple of years away from completion.

I have several buddies from Austin, TX that came in over the weekend and we played Acadiana Park (Duzee) and PA Davis for the first time in years.. Both were impressed with both courses.. asked if there were any others planned and I didn't really know.

We (ADGA) sent certified letters to the mayors of both Broussard & Youngsville about including Disc Golf in the plans for their respective parks projects when they were announced last year after the funding proposals passed in elections.

Youngsville's park has no Disc Golf potential. It is basically sugar cane fields being turned to soccer & ball fields and it is going to be small.

Broussard is a different story. I saw their brochure/artwork about the park and it clearly states "Disc Golf Course" but my calls to Mayor Langlinais' office have gone unanswered thus far.

In the meantime, we just put 18 brand new holes in the ground at Heymann Park off Surrey.